with a contribution from Shirley Favot (CSJ Associate in Sudbury)
I took the photo on the left at the filling station at Bell Park on a walk to the Science North building via the boardwalk on the shores of Ramsey Lake in Sudbury. The photo on the right is my friend Fran Brady filling up inside of Science North.
I just heard of Justin Trudeau's announcement regarding plastics. I hope this is a sign that we are in a unification stage. Hopefully our cosmic journey is pulling us forward and we are emerging into a new species which loves the planet and we will all co-operate. As Teilhard de Chardin refers to harnessing the energies of love.
I watched the Raptors and all I could think of was their love the game and love of all the players...even the other team they referred to them as brothers. The positive energy around that proves of what is possible if we so loved our planet enough to unity. Things could move forward rapidly.
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
Aldo Leopold
The above words and photos by Shirley mark the actions and reflections we need. How do we get more refillable water fountains all across our communities and how do we extend the current actions against plastic to include single-use water bottles? This month, the Federal government announced it was going to ban single-use plastic as early as 2021. But their list does not include beverage containers and that is not good news.
A recent awareness campaign by a group of water organizations (including the Wellington Water Watchers and Council of Canadians) wants us all to know (especially our politicians) that Nestlé has produced more than 3 billion plastic bottles in Aberboyle since their 2016 Provincial permit expired. Laid end-to-end, that number of bottles would circle the earth 16 times. This is just one of many corporations and in less than 3 years.
Let's tell the Honourable Rod Phillips -- now Jeff Yurek (Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks) to end this plastic pollution and SAY NO TO Nestlé's water taking permits.
Also this month a new report came out looking at the results of 26 related studies on the amount of microplastics in our air, food, soil, and water. At least 50,000 particles per person. When it comes to refillable water stations and bottled water companies like Nestlé, Coke, and Pepsi we should remember the following fact from the report:
Some of the best available data is on water, with bottled water containing 22 times more microplastic than tap water on average. A person who only drank bottled water would consume 130,000 particles per year from that source alone, the researchers said, compared with 4,000 from tap water.
What do you think? Where do you see and use refillable water stations and where you would like to see more?
Visit our Blue Community Action page for more.